Calendar

FROM WIRT: In solidarity with Nez Perce megaload blockaders, carpools are departing the WIRT Activist House at 8 am on Monday, September 9, with stops through the reservation, to rally outside and pack the 4 pm Boise federal court hearing seeking a megaload injunction. Advocates for the West will present oral arguments for suspending Idaho Transportation Department permits for Highway 12 megaloads until the Forest Service completes its megaload impact study. After the Nez Perce Tribe and Idaho Rivers United (IRU) versus the U.S. Forest Service case hearing, IRU is hosting a gathering of anti-megaload activists that evening, before we return to north central Idaho. Please contact IRU at 208-343-7481 or info@idahorivers.org if you can attend the party and call 208-301-8039 if you plan to carpool from the Moscow area. The following article and alert describe new developments in this lawsuit.

A presentation that will launch the Palouse Region chapter of Citizens Climate Lobby and explain the case for a revenue-neutral federal carbon fee and dividend. William Barron, Regional Coordinator for Citizens Climate Lobby (CCL), will lead the presentation. Saturday, March 29 from 1 pm to 4 pm, Fiske Room of the 1912 Center.

The Palouse Region CCL is officially started now, following a great opening meeting last Saturday with front page coverage in the Daily News on Monday! (One of the first items to discuss will be the best time for everyone to meet.) The following is from an email from Rob Briggs and Pat Rathmann last Thursday:

 

We will have our first regular meeting on Monday April 7 at 7:00 pm in the sanctuary (up stairs) of the Unitarian Universalist Church of the Palouse, 420 E 2nd St, Moscow, ID.

 

The agenda for the meeting will include listening to the national Citizen’s Climate Lobby conference call.  These calls are invariably upbeat and informative and provide concrete actions that we can take to move the campaign for effective federal climate legislation forward.

 

Additionally, we will be taking initial steps to organize into interest groups to tackle various educational, outreach, and lobbying activities.  We’re hoping to establish multiple interest groups that feel empowered to act, and then use the monthly meetings simply for coordination and sharing successes.

 

There is a wide variety of productive roles you can play in CCL.  These range from reliably reading local newspapers, to serving as behind-the-scenes climate science advisor, tabling, giving presentations, writing letters to the editor, and meeting with Senators and House members.  There are important roles for all skill sets and comfort levels.

 

As Bill Barron mentioned several times on Saturday, CCL likes things to run on time.  We’re hoping to run our chapter meetings in a disciplined and effective way that is respectful of everyone’s time.  CCL suggests that monthly meetings run for two hours.  We rather like the idea of finishing early and retiring to some gathering place to socialize and strategize informally.  CCL provides great opportunities for us to innovate locally, share nationally, and thereby attach a big multiplier to our creative efforts.

WHAT:          The University of Idaho Sustainability Center is hosting an interdisciplinary, student-led panel discussion on the future of food entitled, “Feeding the Future”.

DETAILS:     Students from International Studies, Agricultural Economics, Bioregional Planning, and Business will discuss complex food systems issues in a panel discussion hosted and moderated by the University of Idaho Sustainability Center. Topics will range from the value of sustainable agriculture practices to finding the balance between using acreage for biofuels versus food production. Audience members will have the opportunity to participate in the discussion with questions, and pizza will be provided for attendees. The diverse viewpoints and backgrounds of the student panelists will provide an opportunity to learn about the importance of finding collaborative solutions to global food issues.

WHERE:        University of Idaho Commons, Crest Room, 4th Floor

Please find attached a draft agenda for our meeting tomorrow (Wednesday) at 5:30 pm at the Unitarian Universalist Church of the Palouse (downstairs), 420 E 2nd St, Moscow. We will be serving pizza early during the meeting.

If you can listen to the national CCL call in advance of the meeting here, that will be helpful but is not essential. I found Jay Butera’s story particularly inspiring.

For each month’s call, CCL prepares an action sheet here for the month. Writing members of congress is the top action this month, and I will bring materials so that we can generate letters and postcards to our members of congress during the meeting (time permitting).

Please try to arrive promptly. We will need to finish before 7:00 pm, as many of us will be participating in the planning session (7 pm in Fiske Room, 1912 Center) for community activities to complement the Years of Living Dangerously series showing at the Kenworthy.

The meeting will be held in the Hecht Room of the Neill Public Library at 210 N. Grand Ave, in Pullman from 5:30 to 7:00 pm, Wednesday, June 11.  Pizza  will be served.

The next meeting of the CCL-Palouse will be from 5:30-7:00 p.m. on July 16. We will meet at Bucer’s (back room) at 201 S. Main Street in Moscow. Bucer’s offers a variety of snacks for sale if you want to eat. Many of you will probably continue on to the 7 PM meeting of the YLD group at the One World Cafe in Moscow. (Spanning the length and cultural spectrum of Main Street, eh?)

The meeting will follow the National Call on Saturday July 12 at 1pm by Dr. Katharine Hayhoe, climate change evangelist. (More about this on the CCL website.)

Our big success of the month is that the Idaho Democrats Convention approved a platform that included this statement: “For the sake of future generations, we are committed to taking proactive measures to prevent and mitigate the effects of climate change.” While the subject was not addressed in the platform draft that was presented at the beginning of the convention, CCL-P urged Latah County delegates to introduce a plank on Climate Change. Nancy Nelson carried the ball, and after some discussion (e.g. “climate disruption” vs. “climate change”) at the Platform Committee Hearings , this final wording passed with no objection from the convention delegates.

The Palouse Chapter of the Citizen’s Climate Lobby will meet from 5:30-7 p.m. on Wednesday August 6 at the Daily Grind on Main Street in Pullman. The Grind has a variety of beverages, sandwiches and pastries if you would like to eat there.

We will send the agenda and July’s minutes with our next reminder, but the focus of the meeting will be a Power Point presentation from the national office on climate change. Members, please come with tough–even adversarial–questions so we can hone our skills at giving presentations to local organizations.

The next national call is on Saturday, August 2 at 10 a.m. Retired general Wesley Clark, former NATO Supreme Allied Commander will discuss the impact of climate change on national security. To listen to the call go to http://citizensclimatelobby.org and on the opening page, scroll down to National Call. If you are registered, you can listen live, or the call will be available as an MP3 by about 1 p.m. that day under the button “Listen to the August Call.” We hope you can listen to this prior to the August 6 meeting.

Please mark your calendar for the next Citizens’ Climate Lobby meeting to be held Wednesday, September 10, 5:30 – 7:00 pm at Café Artista at 3rd and Main St. in Moscow. Café Artista offers teas, coffees, croissants and muffins. (Sorry, we’re not permitted to provide pizza at this venue.)

This week’s national CCL call will feature Retired Naval Rear Admiral Len Hering talking about the impact that climate change is having on national security. A link to the recording of the call will be available by mid-day Saturday (9/6) here: [http://citizensclimatelobby.org/resources/monthly-conference-calls-and-actions/]. Past national calls have been highly informative, and I encourage everyone to listen to the call if they can.

We’ll again have a quick letter-writing activity as part of this month’s meeting. I like this quote from Former Congressman Billy Evans (D-Georgia):

“Legislators estimate that 10 letters from constituents represent the concerns of 10,000 citizens. Anybody who will take the time to write is voicing the fears and desires of thousands more.”

Hope to see you next Wednesday.

Rob Briggs
Co-Group Leader
Palouse Region Chapter, Citizens’ Climate Lobby
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eMail: palouseregion@citizensclimatelobby.org